Did police marksmen collude on their accounts of killing the King's Road siege gunman?

Concerns were being raised last night over how the police marksmen involved in the shooting of a barrister conferred over their accounts of the incident.

Mark Saunders, who was a depressive alcoholic, was shot at least five times in three exchanges of fire during a five-hour armed siege of his £2.2million flat in Chelsea last Tuesday.

Nine Scotland Yard officers who exchanged fire with 32-year-old Mr Saunders have been removed from operational firearms duties pending the outcome of an in inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Yesterday it emerged that those involved in the incident sat together to recall the events of the shoot-out before being interviewed by the IPCC's investigators.

This is current accepted practice agreed between the police service and the IPCC in July 2004.

But the IPCC wants the procedure to be changed so that officers cannot confer before they give their account to an independent inquiry.

It criticised the protocol after the Stockwell shooting of Jean-Charles de Menezes, saying that it made officers' accounts 'less credible'.

The eight officers on the Tube when Mr de Menezes was shot said that 'police' or 'armed police' was shouted just before they opened fire but none of the 17 passengers recalled that being said.

Exchange of fire: Police marksmen take aim during last Tuesday's siege in Chelsea

The officers were interviewed by the IPCC under caution on suspicion-of conspiring to pervert the course of justice but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to press charges.

In its recommendations last November, the IPCC asked the Association of Chief Police Officers to review post-incident procedures to ensure that officers no longer wrote up their notes together. That review is still going on.

A spokesman for the IPCC said yesterday: 'We believe it would be better if people gave their accounts without writing up notes together on it first. It would make their accounts more credible.

'If they could just say what they have seen and what they haven't. People remember things differently and we accept there will be differences.

'We get individual statements from civilian witnesses. It should be the same for police officers.'

The Police Federation says it is difficult for officers to give an account alone after such a traumatic incident.

The revelation raises more questions about the incident and Mr Saunders' father Rodney, 64, has already questioned why police needed to shoot his son and suggested the stand- off could have been resolved peacefully.

Senior police sources said the marksmen had been left with no alternative.

The IPCC inquiry is expected to take up to six months to complete. Scotland Yard said it was not prepared to discuss the matter.

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Did police marksmen collude on their accounts of killing siege gunman?